Unboxing the Issue
Tasked with building a coffee table, I considered how its context might shift or change and whether it could remain relevant to the user. My design embodies life's fluidity, offering a functional and stylish solution to furniture waste.
Problem
In the era of rapid consumption, generational furniture is forsaken for choice and convenience. Homes, once adorned with heirlooms, now feature items destined for swift replacement. This departure from sustainable practices casts an overwhelming impact on industry and environment, contradicting the enduring ethos of generational furniture.
Solution
Considering sustainability, my coffee table transcends aesthetics, prioritizing functionality. Adap*Table, a versatile creation, seamlessly adapting to any space thus maximizing utility for the user. It caters to changing needs, day by day and moment by moment, throughout a lifetime. Explore my shift from circular design to one more "triangular", below.
Arranging the Room
Fast Furniture
Fast furniture refers to inexpensive, quickly produced, and often short-lived furniture items designed to meet immediate consumer demand and changing design trends. Similar to the concept of fast fashion, fast furniture prioritizes affordability and rapid production, calling into question its unsustainable impact on the environment.
Fast Appeal
The average American moves approximately 11.7 times in a lifetime. Fast furniture, designed for dynamic lifestyles, provides affordable, flexible, and accessible furnishing, particularly appealing to younger demographics (20-29 years old), who are more likely to rent and less likely to settle in one location or have a surplus of disposable income.
Slow Impact
Pollution
- The average piece of furniture produces 47kg of carbon dioxide equivalents
- The plastics in the product 20-500 years to decompose
Deforestation
- Producing more means using materials like timber sourced from forests
- 68% of fast furniture retailers fail to uphold sourcing policies
Landfills
- According to the EPA, 12 million tons of furniture was discarded in 2018
- Almost 10 million tons (80%) ended up in landfills
Health Concerns
- In 2018 2.3 million tons of discarded furniture were burned
- Certain plastics like laminates give off carcinogens when burned
Target Audience
The target market for the coffee table includes younger environmentally conscious consumers, urban dwellers with limited living space, and anyone interested in versatile and sustainable furniture options. The optimal age range would be mid- to late- 20s.
Personas
COLLEGE GRAD
CASSANDRA, 23
ENVIRONMENTAL
EVAN, 29
BUSY BEE
BETHANY, 41
The Opportunity
How might we design a coffee table that adapts to the dynamic needs of highly mobile individuals, remaining relevant and reducing landfill impact?
Reading the Manual
Concept
Execution
The design seamlessly blends lightweight and compact features while offering expandability. Evolving into a stackable coffee table arrangement, each unit connects in groups of six (or more) and easily pulls apart. Individually, a table maintains the standard 18" height, perfect for a typical coffee table. However, when fully stacked, the cluster reaches a heightened 24", transforming into an ideal end table solution.
Aggregation
The heart of this innovation is a hexagonal, magnetic biscuit that allows the user to connect individual table units together in as many configurations as the number of available tables and imagination allow.
Building the Solution
Construction
Because of how angular my coffee table was, a great deal of planning, preparation, and geometry was required before I could even enter the woodshop. By constructing jigs to produce the desired angles, I was able to transform a 4x4 post into legs and connecting pieces.
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